The use of wire rope shock absorbers, especially on board ships, leads to constant maintenance problems due to corrosion, wire fraying and breaking. Also, these shock absorbers have only a limited amount of adjustability or tuning with respect to shock and vibration isolation, and they are often unsightly in appearance. Their isolation of shock and vibration forces is also inferior to devices made in accordance with the present invention. Furthermore, strands of wire rope elements that run in loops have to be joined at some point. The joining structure is likely to effect the isolation characteristics of the element. If the wire rope breaks, the entire structure must be replaced. If a continuous wire is run from loop to loop, the wire will transmit forces in a helical manner along the wire rope throughout the entire structure. The substantially independent isolation of each spring element from the other, so that forces are controlled in a desired manner, is another advantage of the present invention that cannot be achieved with helically wound continuous wire rope devices.